Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-10643

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what part NHS National Procurement Scotland has in the development, implementation and management of the single national formulary.

The Scottish Government has completed the first round of stakeholder engagement regarding the Single National Formulary (SNF). An event for the NHS service was held on the 16 May 2017, and NHS National Procurement Scotland were in attendance. The event included a workshop for all attendees to give their views regarding the vision and possible structure of the SNF, and NHS National Procurement Scotland participated in this. There has been no further involvement in the development, implementation and management of the SNF. The role of National Procurement Scotland with the SNF has yet to be agreed.

Question reference: S5W-10629

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many iPads have been provided to NHS staff in each year since 2010.

Question reference: S5W-10632

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has cost each local authority to means test social care services for people over 65 in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S5W-10638

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been admitted to hospital after overdosing on opioids in each year since 1999.

Information on admissions to hospital after overdosing on opioids is provided in the following table.

Table 1: Number of people¹ admitted to acute hospitals in Scotland² after overdosing on opioids³, and the number who subsequently died⁴; calendar years⁵ 1999 – 2016.

Calendar year⁵	Number of people^1,2	Number discharged dead⁴
1999	1,476	9
2000	1,943	17
2001	2,275	14
2002	2,369	9
2003	2,119	12
2004	2,084	19
2005	1,900	14
2006	1,995	14
2007	2,201	14
2008	2,365	16
2009	2,321	19
2010	2,270	14
2011	2,362	12
2012	2,363	13
2013	2,389	15
2014	2,326	28
2015	2,374	27
2016	2,507	24

Source: ISD Scotland Scottish Morbidity Record 01 (SMR01)

Ref: IR2017-01333.

Notes:

Patients are counted once each year, regardless of the number of admissions to hospital they may have had in that year.
Includes patients admitted to acute hospitals in Scotland, irrespective of admission type and patient’s country of residence. Does not include admissions to psychiatric hospitals.
Up to six diagnoses can be recorded within each hospital episode record. This analysis is based on records with opioid overdose diagnoses in any position and within any episode within the patient’s stay. Diagnoses are coded using the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). The following ICD10 codes were used to identify opioid overdose, defined as poisoning by:

T40.0 – Opium

T40.1 – Heroin

T40.2 – Other opioids

T40.3 – Methadone.

Multiple substances may be involved in a drug-related overdose, therefore hospital records can include more than one drug poisoning code.

The ICD-10 code selection listed above does not specify if the overdoses were due to illicit drug or prescribed drug use.

All types of underlying causes for overdose are taken into account, including accidental poisoning, intentional self-poisoning, assault by drugs and undetermined intent.

People with hospital discharge type ‘death’.
Calendar years are assigned based on patient’s date of admission to hospital.

Question reference: S5W-10655

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government under what circumstances a father would not be allowed to register a baby or child with the NHS.

Generally GPs should not refuse a person registration unless there are exceptional circumstances. According to the national regulations either parent can apply for registration on behalf of a child. The regulations also allow for a non-parental guardian to be able to register a child.

One possibility where a parent (either mother or father) would not be allowed to register a child with a GP practice is if the child lived outwith the practice area (i.e. they are living with the other parent or another guardian). This would be reasonable grounds for refusal under the regulations.

It is also possible that in certain circumstances i.e. a custody dispute, a court could make an order prohibiting one parent from registering the child, or an order saying where the child should be registered.

Question reference: S5W-10630

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much each hospital charges patients to make phone calls.

Question reference: S5W-10735

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 14 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 1 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to research by the group, Equality Here, Now, which suggests that 0.85% of the NHS workforce identifies as being disabled.

Question reference: S5W-10636

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 31 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many attacks on NHS staff have been reported to the police in each year since 1999.

The information requested is not held centrally, as police crime statistics do not in general refer to the complainer’s employer.

Depending on the nature of any attack, Police Scotland will record the appropriate crime or offence. For NHS staff this could include common assault of an emergency worker, however this measure will also include assaults against those working in Police and Fire services.

The 2015 NHS Scotland staff survey found a reduction in the number of staff who had experienced a physical attack since 2008. However any violence or aggression against NHSScotland staff is unacceptable and we have policies in place to provide and continuously improve a safe working environment. Details can be found at the following link:- http://www.staffgovernance.scot.nhs.uk/media/1399/gender-based-violence-employee-pin-policy.pdf

Question reference: S5O-01217

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to expand GP services in Lothian.

Question reference: S5W-10625

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 August 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of babies have been fully immunised in each year since 1999.

Immunisation uptake rates are routinely published by age 12 months and 24 months for the full course of each individual primary and booster vaccine. Calendar year data since 1995 are available on the ISD website at: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Child-Health/Publications/2017-06-27/child_imms_Scot_qtr117.xlsx (Trends in immunisation uptake by quarter, calendar and financial year - Scotland - tables 5 and 6).

The convention for reporting childhood immunisation uptake rates in Scotland and the rest of the UK is by measuring uptake of the full course of each vaccine individually. The information is collated in this way to assess levels of protection against the spread of specific infectious diseases through the routine immunisation programme.